Dubai Offshore Sailing Club Sailability at Abu Dhabi Volvo stopover

Access dinghies at the Abu Dhabi Volvo Ocean Race stopover

Dubai Offshore Sailing Club Sailability at Abu Dhabi Volvo stopover

By Denise Norman on 9 Jan

Access dinghies at the Abu Dhabi Volvo Ocean Race stopover

All photos © Denise Norman

DOSC Sailability gets Volvo Ocean Race shop window in Abu Dhabi

A tiny yellow Access Dinghy from Dubai Offshore Sailing Club stole some of the limelight during the arrival of Team Telefónica into Abu Dhabi on January 4th.

Working closely with the Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club, as well as the Volvo Race organisers, DOSC Sailability brought four of its Access Dinghies to the Abu Dhabi race village to shop window Sailability and help establish a local volunteer force and an Abu Dhabi centre for disabled sailing.

Volvo provided space on the arrivals pontoon ensuring the little fleet of dinghies was under the noses of all visiting guests. To add to the momentum the little yellow Access Dinghy named “Jamie”, with its DOSC Sailability volunteer Nikki Lamprell and a representative from the Abu Dhabi Sailing Club, adventured into the Team Telefónica arrival.

There was already a fair amount of pandemonium with a two masted dhow in full sail screaming through the water. The dhow is the traditional Gulf boat and has no stopping or turning ability other than to drop its sails. This caused Team Telefónica to back-off slightly and “Jamie” enjoyed also being in the heart of the action.

The DOSC Sailability team and their Access fleet will be welcoming local disabled and the general public to “have a go” over a four day period.

Already an Abu Dhabi group – Zayed Organisation for Special Needs - went out ahead of the Volvo fleet arrivals. Susie Harris from DOSC Sailability reports: “My first crew had no sailing experience so I described it like driving a car. The joystick steering works like a car steering wheel and adjusting the main sheet is like pressing the accelerator pedal. Nasser soon got the hang of it and while nervous at the start thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Afterwards he made the point that with his disabilities he would never be able to drive a car but he could certainly master sailing.”

Others from the group had an equally exhilarating experience with all the DOSC Sailability team also thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to get novices out on the water. The Access Dinghy is deep keeled and virtually impossible to tip over, providing the perfect vessel for beginners and the disabled.

DOSC will also be assisting Volvo Ocean Race with additional activity over the days leading up to the fleet departure on January 14th. An annual Bill Nelson Memorial Race has been re-timed and re-routed so that it finishes and arrives into the Volvo Race Village ahead of the VOR inshore race on January 13th. Twenty-five boats are currently in preparation to race or rally from a start line off Dubai’s coast on Thursday January 12th.

For further information on DOSC Sailability please contact either the Regional Organiser, Carol Canning on +971 50 457 6626 or or Marketing & PR Co ordinator Rachel Eglington on +971 50 514 1207 or

For disabled sailing in Abu Dhabi, contact Miguel Contreras on +971 50 123 4062 or

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Plain sailing...

We use the phrase “plain sailing” to describe something that is relatively simple or straightforward. The term, however, was originally a reference to navigation methods. Today we’re accustomed to using sophisticated instruments to help us navigate, but in the days of old – before the advent of accurate time-pieces and navigation tables – a skilled navigator would need to be a master of spherical trigonometry. That’s because the mathematical calculations involved in determining how to travel across the surface of the earth are extremely complex.

To simplify matters, navigators would ignore the curvature of the earth and plot their course based on the earth’s surface being flat, or ‘plane’, sometimes spelt ‘plain’. They would steer courses either east or west until they reached their desired longitude, and then turn north or south in order to reach their final destination – and while ‘plain sailing’ took a little longer, it eliminated the need to perform the more complicated calculations.